Ingrid Andress – “The Stranger”

Ingrid Andress is one of the most promising newcomers to ever arrive in country music. With her debut album, Lady Like, containing her Top 10 weeper “More Hearts Than Mine,” she explores quirky word play against a plush pop-country backdrop. Standout “The Stranger” is another sterling exhibit of her songwriting strengths.

Rootsy piano plants in the middle of a windy production, slowly building into a heavenly frenzy. “And you play the stranger / I’ll play the girl at the bar / The same place where this all got started,” she sings, examining a relationship’s staleness. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t know you at all / So we could do it all over / And fall all over each other again.”

Start to finish, “The Stranger” embodies all that is still great about country music.